A moment I’ll cherish.

Loyal readers of my personal blog may remember in my distant past I ran a fashion blog called DFOF (dedicated followers of fashion) with a couple of friends. As with many blogs, it was fun while it lasted.

This week at SuccessConnect my interest in fashion and my day job came to together in a rather special way.

I moderated a panel with 4 live, happy Employee Central customers discussing global HR. They discussed their projects and implementations, successes and so on, answering questions from the audience. Having Nitin from Boston Scientific, Judith from Amway, Justin from Brooks Brothers and Jermaine from Edgewell (Energizer) showcasing EC and other SF products was pretty neat. We had a full room of over 200 people. I asked questions, and passed a microphone around, and just listened to them saying great things about our products. Seeing the genuine belief that these customers have in our solutions was simply lovely. There is nothing better than customers telling their stories.

But the magic moment for me was not in the panel, it was just afterwards.

The day before flying to Vegas I went into the Brooks Brothers shop in Philly on Walnut street, and bought a shirt to wear on the panel, partly to help open the discussion, but also because I like an excuse for a bit of retail therapy, state of the Euro notwithstanding. Justin from Brooks Brothers was rather pleased that I had splashed out, and asked me how the shopping experience was. I had brilliant service in the store, in fact, I bought two shirts, not one. He then asked me to remember who had served me. I couldn’t remember his name, as I’m rubbish at remembering names, but quick as a flash, Justin clicked on the SF app on his phone, opened the org chart and drilled down to the photo and found the store employee. He gave him kudos immediately, almost before I finished my sentence.

With 2 or 3 clicks, probably without realising it, Justin had proven, in action, precisely what we are trying to achieve with our products. This wasn’t just about EC, it was about mobile, EC, platform and talent all working together. Without our software that feedback would have been lost. Without the mobile org chart, Justin wouldn’t have been able to get to the info. Without EC, he wouldn’t have known precisely who was working the store. Without Talent he wouldn’t have been able to do the kudos, and quickly let the store manager and regional manager know.

This really made my day. I look forward to talking further with Justin, about how technology can make HR more human, but more importantly, I’d like to mourn the demise of the tie in corporate attire, and figure out to destroy the evil that is business casual.